LOS ANGELES >> Bumble Bee Foods will pay $6 million in fines and restitution including $1.5 million to the family of the employee who was burned to death inside an industrial oven at the company’s Santa Fe Springs plant in October 2012, officials said Wednesday.

Los Angeles County district attorney’s officials called the settlement the largest known workplace violation agreement ever.

Bumble Bee Foods LLC, the company’s former safety manager Saul Florez, 42, of Whittier, and current director of plant operations Angel Rodriguez, 63, of Riverside, were charged in April with three felony counts each in connection with the October 2012 death of 62-year-old employee Jose Melena of Wilmington.

As part of the settlement, the company will pay $3 million to replace the plant’s outdated tuna ovens with automated ovens; pay $1.5 million in restitution to Melena’s family on top of any other compensation or payment; $750,000 to the district attorney’s environmental enforcement fund for investigating and prosecuting workplace safety; and $750,000 in fines and court fees. Rodriguez will serve 320 hours of community service, take two safety classes and pay $11,400 in fines and fees.

After 18 months, both parties can plead guilty to a single misdemeanor count of willfully failing to maintain an effective safety program, according to Judge Michael E. Pastor at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles.

Florez pleaded guilty to one count of willfully violating workplace safety rules causing a death and will serve three years felony probation, serve 30 days of community labor, take two safety classes and pay around $19,000 in penalties and fees. If Florez completes the terms of the plea, he can petition after 18 months to reduce the charge to a misdemeanor and serve unsupervised probation.

“As far as we know in California, this is the first time that a safety manager has been convicted of a felony,” Consumer Protection Division Assistant Head Deputy Hoon Chun said. “And we hope that the message gets out there that you can’t just be a safety manager in name only.”

Florez and Rodriguez faced a maximum sentence of three years in state prison and/or a $250,000 fine. The San Diego-based company faced a $1.5 million maximum fine.

Melena’s family members, one of whom sat silently watching the proceedings, did not want to comment, Chun said. The family had retained a civil attorney, he said, but did not elaborate.

“While this resolution will help bring closure with the District Attorney’s Office, we will never forget the unfathomable loss of our colleague Jose Melena and we are committed to ensuring that employee safety remains a top priority at all our facilities,” according to a statement sent on behalf of Bumble Bee Foods.

Melena, a father of six and a six-year employee of the plant at 13100 Arctic Circle Drive, had been assigned to load a particular oven on the morning of his death and entered one of the 54-inch-by-36-foot industrial ovens to make a repair or an adjustment to a chain, according to the state safety regulator’s citation about the Oct. 11, 2012, incident.

He left the pallet jack used to load tuna outside the oven and another employee assumed that Melena was in the bathroom, then started using the jack, the citation said.

Employees began searching for Melena after a supervisor noticed the worker’s car was still in the parking lot and Melena’s body was found two hours later.

A Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner’s autopsy determined Melena died from burns and an investigation was launched by the California Occupational Safety & Health Administration and the District Attorney’s Office.

The Cal/OSHA investigation found that previous serious injuries at the tuna canning plant had gone unreported to the state agency. An employee had a finger amputated after it was caught in a chute on Oct. 23, 2011, and another employee suffered a fractured skull after falling from a forklift on June 28, 2011, Cal-OSHA officials previously said.

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